Coal crisis: PSPCL calls emergency meeting of power plants’ officials
POWER DEMAND IN PUNJAB TO SHOOT UP FROM 8,000 MW TO 12,500 MW PER DAY DURING PADDY SEASON
PATIALA : A day after Coal India Limited refuted Nabha Power Limited’s (NPL) claim that it was unable to supply enough coal to a 700 MW plant in Rajpura, forcing its shutdown, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) called an emergency meeting of power plants to ensure uninterrupted supply during the paddy season set to start from June 20.
The Coal India blamed the crisis on Nabha Power itself, saying it had delayed the booking and lifting of coal allotted to it for the peak summer and paddy sowing seasons. CIL said that Nabha Power should rush the allotted coal to its plant, instead of blaming Coal India for the fuel shortage.
After the Coal India statement, PSPCL chairman-cummanaging director Baldev Singh Sran has called a meeting of all state-run and private thermal plants on Monday, to resolve the coal crisis. Another meeting on the issue will be held on Wednesday.
“The government has a mandate to give eight hours regular supply to farmers during the paddy season. The meeting has been called to ensure that all plants run as per their installed capacity to meet rising power demand,” said Sran. He said the power demand during the paddy season in the state will shoot up from 6,000 MW to 12,000 to 12,500 MW per day. And to meet this demand, all power plants in the Punjab have to run to their full capacity for the next three months,” he added.
“Following the blame game between the Coal India and Nabha Power Limited, I have asked the director generation to call heads of all governmentrun and private power plants to resolve their issues. This meeting will help us understand who is at fault coal crisis,” said Saran.
He said the Punjab has already requested the Union coal ministry to enhance coal supplies to all thermal plants.
On being asked why the northern grid has not enhanced its transmission limit to 6,400 MW, Sran said the matter has been taken up to get additional power up to 400 MW per day. “There will be no power cuts this season, and farmers will also get eight-hour uninterrupted supply,” he said.
RAJPURA PLANT STARTS OPERATIONS
The Nabha Power Plant, Rajpura, will start its operations from Sunday midnight. The L&T Group had closed its unit on June 3, saying it was forced to take the decision due to coal shortage.
“We have received coal rakes during the last few days. Now, we have stock of four-five days, so we have decided to restart the unit,” said a Nabha Power Plant official. On Friday, 27 rakes of coal were in transit for the Nabha Power Plant.